are different faces of the
same truth

You cannot argue with what your senses clearly tell you. There can be only one
Reality and all areas of thought must ultimately be compatible. Whether or not the human
mind has embraced it, in each conflict there must be a most likely truth. We humans are
unique among life forms on this planet in that we have both intelligence and the means to
exercise that intelligence to discern what is true. You abdicate your humanity when you
fail to exercise that intelligence.

What we accept as true is a mixture of elements compatible with our own reasoning
process and elements urged by others, and acceptance or rejection both require the same
leap of faith. Ultimately all must be compatible with reason, and the tentacles of the
reasoning process must reach into and advise all contrary notions. In the exercise
of your own reasoning process you must accept from the offerings of civilization that
which is good and true (in your own assessment) and reject what is not. Your
thinking process must, for you and to your satisfaction, bridge the divide between various
interpretations of the cosmos, the human drama and personal experience. In the fullness
of time the product of rational thought must overtake truths derived in some other way.

While they may seem to quarrel with both established science and traditional
religion, events portrayed in my (Ken Wear's) Religious Odyssey have
forcefully led me to this context for Reality, which, upon
reflection, gives concrete expression to their fundamental agreement. I respectfully
submit for your consideration that:

The totality of Reality includes the Physical Realm -- the 3-dimensional universe
of mass and energy -- in the more inclusive multi-dimensional Spirit Realm
populated by individually identifiable spirits who have a continuing existence without birth
or death. The spirit that is me on Earth, a part of the Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy,
. . ., is housed in a body of bone and flesh and blood, including a nervous system controlled
by a brain that is animated by me, the spirit.1
Spirit to view footnote click 'Spirit'.

We may debate the organization of the Spirit Realm and the extent of its influence on
elements and events in the Physical Realm. I am content that, while I was yet in the Spirit
Realm, I was assigned this body, complete with hereditary influences; and I will, when this
body ceases to function, return to the Spirit Realm ready for reassignment to another
physical body or to tasks within the Spirit Realm. This life, this sojourn in a body
having physical sensory apparatus, is, for me, both privilege and assignment.2
Spirit realm? to view footnote click 'Spirit
realm'

In splitting of the pre-existing nothingness into virtual and physical elements, spirits
arose along with the universe. As the physical coalesced into the universe, so the virtual
coalesced and became organized into a hierarchy with a primal personality (God),
subordinate personalities who exercise insight over various astronomical entities such as
Earth, and spirits such as you and me. In our existence beyond this life, we will recognize
and fellowship with those who gave this life meaning and others from previous sojourns
in the Physical Realm.
We may reflect on what disposes us to moral or ethical behavior. Perhaps deeds and
attitudes should be compared with what Jesus of Nazareth would have endorsed. I suggest
in addition a more personal view: You may harvest in your next life what you sow in this
one.
: and from there I present, in the following paragraphs, conclusions of a religious nature.

When I rationalize personal experiences with notions of organization of the cosmos
(including deity) I reach the framework suggested above, which must underpin any religion
that is compatible with the advance of science. The nature of the process by which science
has advanced does not contemplate verification of all truths; to avoid quarrels I simply
say I feel the urge to believe, and it pleases me to honor that
urge

. The variety of teachings extant among man suggests a House of
Man, which embraces all who have, by whatever route, come to accept conclusions
they felt supportable by their reasoning processes or by their experiences. No religion
can forever deny what our physical senses tell us; truth will earn our allegiance. Yet,
lacking alternatives, mankind needs the civilizing influence of the church. In the advance
of science many teachings must be revised as more certain information becomes available
and old assumptions give way, as they must, to more likely interpretations.

Science observes and measures -- within the limits of its tools -- and interprets its
measurements. What cannot be observed is beyond the reach of science. In its advance
over the centuries additional tools have become available and refinements in those tools
have made possible increased sensitivity to the workings and peculiarities of Nature.
Many adherents to science have allowed themselves to speculate beyond the reach of their
measurements and formulated conclusions that may eventually be proved incorrect; that is
the nature of dedication to science and is responsible for much of the material progress
of mankind. It is perhaps unfortunate that many of those dedicated to science have
blinded themselves to possibilities presently -- and perhaps forever -- beyond the reach
of scientific observation. But their blindness should not be allowed to deny truths
beyond their reach.

I now turn to teachings that I have found, through force of reason, a likely elaboration of
Reality, which I call Rational Theism. They may at points seem at odds with what
others teach but must, in the fullness of time, become the bedrock of any religion that
survives the ongoing saga of civilization. (Among the various names by which deity is
known, I have chosen to use the name 'God.') And I note that God wishes to welcome
those who seek His face through voluntary exercise of their own minds.

At the end of this document are links to related documents at this
web site; for thoughts on how you may participate in fostering Rational Theism as an
institution, visit "Instatutionalizing Rational Theism."

I have speculated that there is in the Spirit Realm, of which our physical universe is an
integral part, a hierarchy. Our local deity, who exercises authority over Earth (perhaps in
addition to other populated bodies), is a member of this hierarchy, which embraces galaxies
and such, all subordinate to the primal deity. I note that atheists, agnostics, deists and
theists alike differ, not so much in their belief, as in their definition of deity. Even the
atheist, in expressing disbelief and regardless of how fervently he insists otherwise, has
in mind some idea of what it is he has chosen to disbelieve.

God the Doer: The dominant being in the Spirit Realm arose and evolved along
with the physical universe and at some point in the distant past became organized. We do
not and perhaps cannot know the interplay between the Spirit and Physical Realms or the
extent of His influence in shaping events that led to the creation of our galaxy or our solar
system or, indeed, our planet and home. Nor can we know how His Spirit Realm is
organized to service the myriad units within the universe. But I submit that He, or His
subordinates under His influence, have been actively involved in what we call evolution,
that species have arisen and perished as part of an on-going saga, influenced from time to
time by members of the Spirit Realm intervening to influence or alter circumstances in
the Physical Realm for purposes of His choosing. Evolution proceeds at its own pace
with or without involvements from the Spirit Realm. But deity and
His surrogates have not withdrawn from active involvement and man is not, lest he
destroy his own kind, the end of evolution.

The mind of God we cannot presume to know. I note that every creature (and
indeed all living things -- the creepy-crawlers, man, sunflowers, dinosaurs) is each an
individual being enjoying individual autonomy, each a product of the forces in which
we are immersed. In what manner does He exercise oversight? His attention is focused
wherever He chooses but He has subordinates assigned to maintain His involvement with
Earth, with mankind, and with us. Since I have benefited from the results of prayer I am
convinced that, whatever the structure of the Spirit Realm, He has provided access, for
members of our kind, to His wisdom and sympathies. Does God have in mind an end
product for me, for our species, for our Earth, or indeed for the universe itself? I
question it but feel that He takes an active role whenever and wherever it suits His fancy
for whatever end He at the time has in mind. The on-going saga is an experience for
Him as much as for you and for me.

The personality of God: However valid they may be, the only clues we have
are in our religious documents and in our own experiences. God has not changed over the
millennia; it is man's understanding of God that has changed. The notion that we were
created in God's image, since God is a spirit, cannot indicate that we are of a physical
form like Him; rather, we are in spirit comparable to Him. Jesus of Nazareth presented a
picture of God as loving, wise, patient, just and merciful. To be like Him, we must
reflect God's personality as described by those having a closer bond with Him, perhaps
the person Jesus of Nazareth.

If you read -- critically -- the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, you can discern that
deity is often presented as disagreeable, hateful, vengeful, pernicious. Reflect on the origin
of religion and the natural bent of men to seek dominance over their fellows. Then
consider the paucity of scientific understanding in ancient times and the explanations of
events we now understand differently. It seems obvious that the priesthood evolved to
assert power over its subjects; it served the priest's purpose to be the means of intervening
with a disagreeable deity on behalf of tribal members. We hope to avoid those same
power-seeking incentives in today's religious leaders; we wish for humility and a desire to
serve.

The Word of God: God did not take pen in hand, nor did He overpower the
hands of the authors or induce a trance to force the recording of words or ideas of His
choosing. To what extent, then, does the Torah or Bible or Koran or Upanishads or . . .
present the words and their sequence that the deity would present for the guidance of
humankind? I was reared in an atmosphere of inerrancy of the Bible, in acceptance of the
literal words -- in contemporary English -- of the Bible as the actual wording God chose.
While prayer may have influenced use of specific wording, I cannot agree it is all God's
wording.5 To view footnote, click
here. Individual authors, true to their own vocabulary and manner
of expression, wrote from their own experiences: devout people sincerely attempting to
serve God through their agency in the Physical Realm, carrying out the Will of God as
they sensed it at the time.

I suggest that, rather than describing physical occurrences, many presentations in our
religious documents are allegorical, intended to present abstractions of what a description
of a series of events would convey only poorly. Or to present scientific insights in a
language understandable to people lacking a scientific language or understanding. And
we have today devout people sincerely trying to present interpretations of whatever
written record they honor for the enlightenment and guidance of contemporary people.
(And we have our share of charlatans whose motive is first to serve themselves; if God
can appropriate their efforts to His advantage, then we applaud those successes.)

Many a preacher has shouted: If you want to know God's will for your life, or how He
wishes you to deal with a problem, study the Bible. I'm sure the preacher would be equally
adamant that God has not withdrawn from human affairs. Yet the logic is sure: If it is all
in the Bible, then the Bible must have replaced God as the well-spring of contemporary
revelation. Is this not worship of the Bible itself rather than the God Who inspired men
to write what is in the Bible? A God Who loves me must be my
contemporary and can as surely communicate on a continuing basis now as He did then.

Serving God: What leads an individual on a course he feels of service to
God is a personal experience peculiar to that individual. Whatever the histories of the
spirits we know as Mary (the mother of Jesus), Jesus Himself, the 12 Disciples, or the
Apostle Paul, we do have a written record of some of their activities -- with, likely, some
distortions; and we correctly honor them for their service to mankind (and by extension to
God). There have been myriad souls who felt a divine urge to serve -- to be of value in
the human saga -- so many that we could not name them all and certainly could not rank
them (except for a select few) in their over-all impact on the history of our species.

I have felt that my personal Walk With God has led me to undertake a series of essays
presenting what appears to me a rational description of our world and how we ought to
interpret it to be consistent with the deity's role. It is my hope they will contribute to
bridging the gap between reason and faith, thus helping dispel conflicts between science
and teachings of the church.

Other religious truths

The origin of man I have dealt with adequately, I think, elsewhere
at this web site. Evolution of species is a physical fact that should be beyond
dispute. It is my belief that the deity and His subordinates had a hand in that
evolution.7 To view footnote,
click here.

Individuals as products of evolution: Isn't it arrogant (and perhaps a bit
silly) to think that, of all life forms on this planet, man is held in higher esteem by
deity than any other life form? We like to think of the 'lowly' sparrow as somehow
inferior in worth; isn't is more likely that deity cherishes the individual and not the
species?

Free will: I cannot question that, by virtue of our free and active minds,
we are creatures endowed with the means to make choices, and that we do
make choices unhindered by divine authority. I have walked a path determined
on a day-to-day basis by my choices as influenced by the freely-made choices
of others in my environment at the time. Even a bird selects, using its more
limited brain, where to seek food and which items to consume.

Large events are the product or outgrowth of minor events that set the stage
both in physical situation and in mind-set from which a choice must be made.
Thus the teaching of Predestination (the pre-planning of each life), to be
effective, must of necessity imply excruciatingly careful attention to the smallest
details in each life that participates in a situation; I regard that as utterly beyond
reason. I am not the walking embodiment of a plan formulated for my entire life
in that period preceding birth; there can be no Master Plan directing my every
muscle twitch or the larger goals that dominate my choices. My birth, life and death
are part of an undirected saga as mankind struggles to reach perfection.

The House of Man: The number of religions, faiths, sects, etc., is astounding --
overwhelming. My wisdom is not adequate to let me compare all and suggest which
one is most nearly the true faith, thereby suggesting the rest are misleading. But I
endorse the idea that there is a single Reality and many versions of that Reality, with
each savant seeing his vision of Reality from the perspective or vantage point of his
experiences and his window onto the courtyard that is Reality. Hence the concept
of the House of Man. I have my own views, expressed on these pages, but I consent
that they are the views of this one member of the House of Man.

A Miracle is the setting aside of natural law -- whether or not we understand it --
to accomplish a specific deed or event. In the annals of history it has been common to
interpret as a miracle any occurrence that could not (at that time) be otherwise explained.
I have noted during Bible study that many events described fall outside our present (or
future) ability to explain. I have dealt with three miracles (creation itself, parting of the
Red Sea to facilitate the Israelites' escape from Egypt, and Noah's flood) elsewhere at
this web site and note that, in earlier times, if one could not cite miraculous
behavior or events, his message was not considered worthy of attention. Thus many events
are cast into a framework of miracles where otherwise a very ordinary explanation might
have been offered -- or no mention at all of the event. This is not to deny the possibility
of intervention by the deity or His agents -- I here cite my notion of deistic evolution --
but to affirm that with today's knowledge we can often find a rational explanation, if only
we are motivated to do so, and with tomorrow's knowledge may explain even more. But,
because of the state of generally accepted scientific knowledge at the time of their
composition, we will likely forever be confronted in our religious documents with
presentations that include miraculous events, however plausible or implausible they may
seem to a modern reader.

The notion of Communication with deity, or prayer, confounds many.
How can a sequence of words running through the mind, unuttered audibly, be received
or responded to by deity or His surrogates? It is one of the mysteries of faith. Yet I
have been the recipient of needed advice on many occasions through the mechanism of
prayer. What I accept as evidence is appended as a footnote; to read
that, click here.

Personal salvation is such a highly personal experience that I deal with it
as a footnote. It is often a specific event, a flash of recognition. There can be no
question that being saved or experiencing conversion or salvation
is often a life-altering event. It has redeemed many individuals from a path of
self-destruction or socially unacceptable behavior to a path of service to deity and
consequently to the nobility of self and hence mankind. For the footnote,
click here.

Who can know what goes on in the heart of another? It is between him and his god
whether his notion of deity and devotion to deity is the same as yours. It is my
personal preference to emphasize subordination to God, the Master Spirit; others have
adopted worship of Jesus, the Son and second member of the Trinity. It is the quality
of religious experience that stirs the heart or gives us peace. Open respect for personal
experiences, such as in charismatic churches or public displays, should not be denigrated
by those who do not understand.

Religious Notions of Your Future

Heaven, Hell, Karma: What follows this life? I ask these questions:
1) In a physical resurrection, which is taught by many religions, including many Christian
faiths, how will you, ancestors and descendants recognize each other? How can individuals
from various historical settings all co-exist in a single environment? At what age will you
appear so grandparents recognize the infant they knew or you can recognize your
grandchildren? Faced with this question we must perceive that, when the spirit departs
the body, it continues its existence as a spirit without physical substance. How they
remember, how they recognize, how they communicate without physical senses is hid from
our present understanding.
2) Where are Heaven and Hell located? A physical location is inconsistent with our
expanding knowledge of our Universe since it must be inviolate by physical beings.
We can't expect them to move as man explores beyond Earth and other intelligent beings
explore beyond their home planet. If there be a purgatory, so transgressions while on
Earth can be adequately atoned, it must also be in the Spirit Realm. I assert that a
physical Heaven and a physical Hell are the inventions of preachers.6
To view footnote, click here.

I am uncertain about Karma, how appropriate needs in another physical life can be
determined since an unworthy life adds to the burdens of Karma and a worthy life reduces
the burdens of Karma. As I view Karma and repeated lives in the Physical Realm, any one
life may have specific lessons to be learned or worked out as determined in the selection
of a host body, which has its own genetic disposition, born to parents in a setting that
offers opportunities for needed activities or developments.

It is a fair question: Existence in the Spirit Realm: What is it like? I can
only speculate. The organization of Reality -- the combination of Spirit Realm
and Physical Realm -- seems complex well beyond my ability to understand. I
sought -- and experienced -- prior life recall on four separate occasions; the degree
of detail was amazingly complete. Those experiences plus the visitation by my dead
mother have served to convince me that the totality of existence is far more complex
than is obvious in our bodily experiences here on Earth. What must it be like to be a
distinct, recognizable and functioning individual without bodily apparatus of sight,
sound, taste, touch, memory? How can it be possible there is memory of many prior
lives when there is no physical data storage mechanism? It is no wonder there is
competition in the Spirit Realm for opportunities to experience life in the Physical
Realm, to have tangible organs of sense and bodily sensations; it is remarkable that
entities in the Spirit Realm know of developing bodies to host spirits awaiting their
turn. These are mysteries that tantalize the curiosity, but I must leave inquiry into the
characteristics of the Spirit Realm for the time that I return there since I cannot
imagine what means I have at my disposal in this physical life to reach enlightenment.)

What connection exists between kinship in the Spirit Realm and biological lines on Earth?
I have no insight. Although members of the Spirit Realm may cluster around
specific objectives and realign as time and events transpire, I suspect that all are
of essentially one family with few regarding themselves as especially privileged.
Assuming that, in various periods of existence on Earth, activities by the spirit
possessing the body known as Jesus of Nazareth resulted in biological chains of progeny,
we should not expect those chains to alter relationships of spirits in the Spirit Realm.

Your own future? Assuming there is validity to the notion of your spirit
surviving death of your body and possibly having a future physical existence on this
planet, what sort of environment do you expect to find? Under the action of Karma, you
should expect to be in the midst of the consequences of your own deeds in a setting
resulting from the environmental destruction or preservation growing from the attitudes
and practices of your then-prior life. If you find that environment appealing, then you
should continue your present practices. For myself, I shudder at the consequences of
our civilization continuing on its present course of thoughtless greed and plunder. I
would like to think of a lovely garden filled with all sorts of tantalizing creatures and
vegetation; what I fear is that it will be more like a garbage dump in a community of
scarcity and deprivation. You owe it to your own future to be a thoughtful
steward of the environment you presently inhabit.

I regard confidence in the future as an element of religious faith.

Teachings of Christianity

Love others as you love yourself overrides the doctrinal
schisms of Christian denominations.

Is God chagrined at our refusal to reexamine traditions that arose
in the pre-scientific era? Who could question? I have witnessed the erosion of church
influence through defections due to conflicts between church traditions and teachings of
science that the reasoning process suggests are reliable. While I have no desire to
confound what you have found satisfying in the practice of your faith, intellectual
honesty compels me to present what my own Walk With God
suggests.13 (To view footnote,
click here).

The Trinity: In the first centuries of the Christian era there was controversy
whether Jesus was both human and deity -- the teaching of Dualism. To head off a split
in his empire, the Roman monarch (then leader of the church, filling the office now held
by the Pope) convened a group of church officials and suggested the doctrine, that God
and Jesus and the Holy Spirit were one and the same, that became the teaching of the
Trinity. The teaching was a political solution to a doctrinal schism within the empire
during the fourth century A.D. In keeping with the idea of the Spirit Realm's involvement
in human affairs, I have examined the ideas that the Holy Spirit is a form of energy used
by the deity and that Jesus lived His life as a man like any other; the animating spirit
of Jesus was that of the deity's closest associate in the Spirit Realm so Jesus was a
personal emissary of the deity. I have thus avoided insisting the Trinity is three
expressions of the same entity but have retained the inseparable linkage of the Trinity; I
am comfortable with this idea of the Trinity.

Divine sanction: Was it God's purpose -- a deliberate plan -- to sire a human
being who would, after a brief period of service as an adult, be executed as a criminal by
the ecclesiastical or political powers of the time? The idea of Predestination, which I
have rejected, comes into play. I am content that God saw the availability of the situation
and genetic factors suitable for His purpose and then assigned His chosen spirit to possess
that body. Again, in the timing and manner of bringing death, I question that the
principals involved were led by God (else we should cease to malign them and honor them
for being faithful servants) to act as they did -- that God intervened to bring about events
to serve a pre-determined purpose. Although He lay no claim to political aspirations,
authorities feared the arising political power of Jesus' followers and unwittingly created
an opportunity for martyrdom, which Jesus exploited as a means of accomplishing
the Divine Will as He recognized it. Based on the biblical narrative there seems no
question He could have escaped had He chosen to do so, so we assume He willingly
submitted. (Some Biblical scholars and students of the Bible insist Jesus goaded the
powers of the time, forcing them to act against Him. Others insist his death was part of
a conspiracy gone awry.)

Virginity and pregnancy: As a young man I wondered how the virgin birth was
accomplished, how God managed to bring it about. How did a woman become pregnant
without sperm? The question remained a standing curiosity as I read from time to time
accounts of artificially inducing pregnancy, as by applying a sharp temperature to the
ovum to induce the multiplicative process; but the result was always a clone, a female.
Since the male component was lacking, the genetic material (the DNA as we now know)
from a male must be necessary to produce a male. I suppose you could insist that sexual
teasing produced a pregnancy; I have been told such pregnancies are known. Eventually
the question dropped from my mind; it was a mystery without answer. Now, in retrospect,
I recognize the involvement of deity in the Spirit Realm, as suggested in the preceding
paragraph, and the question of sex play recedes and becomes immaterial. I am content to
avoid further inquiry and leave an explanation outside the accepted framework of
reproduction.

The Virgin birth of Jesus: In the English language of today virginity has the
specific meaning that an individual has been totally without sexual intercourse throughout
the entirety of his physical life from birth to the time in question. However, the Hebrew
language (the Aramaic dialect) used in the earlier writings that were translated into Greek
and then into Latin before their translation into the 17th century English of the King
James Version (KJV) of our Bible, had a different construction. It was a practical
language and considered the marriageability of a young woman; as such a virgin was a
young woman without dependents; her sexual purity was immaterial.
We have in more recent times adopted a tradition that our English notion of virginity be
used in our interpretation of ancient events. (Retranslation of Isaiah 7:14 contributed to
confusion. Whereas KJV says "virgin," the Revised Standard version (RSV) says "young
woman.") (Please understand I make no statement about the sexual practices or yearnings
of a particular young woman in times past, nor the participation of deity; this is a
statement about evolution of languages and their translations.)

Son of God: It is instructive to recognize that in the vernacular of His time a
youngster of unknown fatherhood was known as a "child of God." Jesus grew up the
illegitimate son of Joseph the carpenter as a "child of God," his uncertain parentage
possibly being known among his contemporaries. You should keep in the forefront of your
thoughts that we are all members of the same Spirit Realm when you ask if Jesus was a
child of God (as the world views offspring) in any sense different from your own paternity.
I am not privileged to delve into the unfathomable question of relationships within the Spirit
Realm; it is an article of faith that there was an uncommonly close relationship between
the spirit we know as Jesus and the spirit we know as God. (I am intrigued at Matthew
5:44-45: "I say to you Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you
may be sons of your Father who is in heaven," from RSV, the Sermon on the Mount. Is it
possible any one of us may achieve a status that can be likened to that of Jesus?)

We can legitimately ask how Jesus became aware of His peculiar call to service. I sense
that He knew from the time His spirit became associated with the developing infant.
In keeping with modern understanding of development of the human brain, which does not
reach maturity until about age 25, it may be that Jesus recognized His special calling
through prayer, a practice of Joseph's religion.

The Life of Jesus: We have no information on how long Joseph, Mary and
the infant Jesus remained in Egypt although the gifts suggested in the Christmas story
should have been sufficient to sustain them for some time. And details are lacking from
about age twelve (the age at which a Jewish boy achieves majority or becomes a man) to
the beginning of His ministry. I would suppose He went to a center of learning (such as
Egypt, where his family fled, maybe Alexandria) and became educated (in keeping with
then-current ideals of what constituted education). Perhaps He also lived for a time
near Qumran among the ascetic Gnostics.

My appreciation of the impact of the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth does not
hinge on prophesies in the earlier books, chapters or verses of the Bible nor
on the historical accuracy of events portrayed. And, however you regard the historical
accuracy of our written record of His life, it is obvious that His motivation was to serve
God by sacrificing His own life on our behalf.

The teachings of Jesus of Nazareth: Most aspects of His life are unimportant
to us except for historical understanding of its impact on our species. Characteristic
of human kind are greed and lust for power. He taught submission, humility, fairness
and charity. Governments have been instituted to allow men to live harmoniously as
a society. God loves all equally so in equality each of us can pursue opportunities
for service and happiness, enjoying freedom to pursue a dream, ever mindful to bless
rather than harm others in that pursuit. "Love your neighbor. And love your enemies.
Make peace with your brother. Be merciful. Bless them that curse you. Remain pure
in heart. Judge not. Seek and you shall find. Do to others as you want done to you.
Where your treasure is there also is your heart. You cannot serve two masters. You
are the light of the world. Forgive your debtors. Seek first the kingdom of God and
His righteousness. Don't throw your pearls before swine. By their fruits you shall
know them." These are remarkable teachings and a sure underpinning of an honorable
and fulfilling life. Moreover, contemporary teachings of psychology and psychiatry
(and medicine in strengthening the immune system) reinforce the merit of these teachings.

The Sermon on the Mount: Excepting The Ten Commandments, one of the most
concise collections of moral instruction is in Matthew 5-7. While it is portrayed as a single
event, I am inclined to take it as a collection of sayings ascribed to Jesus while He
journeyed from site to site in a circuit perhaps much like the circuit preachers early in this
country's history. I suspect someone in His entourage was educated enough to keep notes --
or perhaps He Himself kept notes; more likely someone after His death collected sayings
attributed to Jesus and compiled them into a single text.

I have tried to develop a definition of love as Jesus taught it and
have come to this operative description: Be aware of those whose lives you
touch, choose to do what is beneficial to them without thought for yourself, and accept
as your reward the certain knowledge that you have tried to love.

The crucifixion of Jesus: Death from exposure during public display on a wooden
structure was a form of execution practiced by the Romans of the time. I have read the
suggestion that the form of device commonly used was a simple pole with no cross member;
the scarcity of timber in a rather barren land also suggests it. Although metals were scarce,
iron was available at the time, but bronze should have been strong enough to use in nails.
The means of mounting the person on the device was to cross his hands above his head and
then cross his ankles and fasten them above where they would freely fall. Thus the victim
would use his muscle power to support his weight to reduce pain in his hands, thereby
increasing his exertion and hastening death. Death often took two or more days, but Jewish
religious custom required disposal of a body before sundown in preparation for the Sabbath,
which began at sundown on the day of the crucifixion. And this Sabbath was a high holy
day, the beginning of the Passover.

One may reflect on the impatience of the executioner in awaiting death to overtake the
victim. In the Roman practice it was common to hasten death by breaking the victim's
legs, but why spend that energy to hasten a death already concluded, so Jesus' legs were
spared. John's gospel, the last of the four to be written, notes the flow of blood and
water from the puncture wound in Jesus' side, where a spear had been flung and found its
mark; we have no clear indication of the severity of the wound and, since the heart quits
pumping upon death, we may question the medical accuracy of the statement.

The resurrection of Jesus: This is crucial to the prevailing interpretation of
the Christian faith. Where is Heaven? And Jesus' body, to have vanished as a physical
presence, must have gone somewhere. I have concluded that there is no physical place in
the universe where souls collect and are reconstituted in a physical form akin to our
physical essence on Earth. The departure of the spirit from the body upon physical death
is an ordinary occurrence; of course the spirit possessing the body of Jesus of Nazareth
survived the physical death of that body and continues its existence. Of the physical
resurrection of the body that was laid in that tomb, I note that it neither went to a
physical Heaven nor ceased to exist. I note that three days of entombment are counted
thus: Jesus was taken down from the cross before sundown in preparation for the Sabbath
(day one), was in the tomb during the Sabbath (day two), and the empty tomb was
discovered at sunrise the next day (day three) -- elapsed time perhaps as much
as 36 hours.

I have wrestled with a plausible explanation, as we ordinarily understand science,
without success. Surely his body temperature was sensed during preparation for burial,
so the suggestion Jesus was comatose seems implausible; moreover, the authorities
reportedly assigned guards to the tomb to preclude tampering, and the stone protecting
the grave was reportedly so massive it would have required great physical exertion to roll
it away. I dismiss the suggestion of a conspiracy to produce the effects or appearance of
resurrection since the Biblical account says His followers were surprised at the empty
tomb. And His appearances afterward fit within the descriptions in our literature of
apparitions sensed by the living. I leave this question without explanation and am
content to accept that there was an extraordinary link between the spirits Jesus and God.

Whatever attitude or conviction you may hold about the resurrection of Jesus, you
cannot question the immense influence the personality Jesus has exerted on our species.
Whether license with the truth is evident in the recorded scriptures, the ability of the
faith to transform a life is beyond question. I have not been persuaded that the
scientific accuracy of the scripture is a necessary ingredient in the transformational ability
of the faith, so I have lost concern for a plausible explanation of either Mary's pregnancy
or Jesus' resurrection. As a student of religion you must accept what you feel is
necessary to support your faith.

Someone seeking an article of faith about the person Jesus of Nazareth
that is wholly within the realm of reason, supportable by science, and consistent
with teachings of the Christian church, can assert: "I believe that the spirit animating
the person Jesus of Nazareth was a personal emissary of deity Who lived among
us as a member of our kind, Who early in life accepted His role as Son of God,
Who was educated according to the best traditions of His time, Who sought to
reveal deity as a loving parent with a continuing involvement with us, Who
provoked the authorities with His teachings and was on our behalf executed as a
criminal, and Whose spirit returned to its rightful place alongside deity." Granted,
this statement lacks the mystical qualities associated with the life and death of Jesus,
but it is entirely within the realm of rational thought and does not dispute the
teachings of the established Christian church.

We must attribute to the Apostle Paul, the tent maker, the primary
effort and success in interpreting the life of Jesus and presenting it wherever he
journeyed, with the result that congregations of followers were built in many
population centers. Since history took this course, we cannot know (or even
speculate) what successes the Disciples would have produced without Paul's
efforts. The Disciples no doubt kept the faith, were involved in recording events
that became the scripture, and succeeded in building congregations in their regions,
but we attribute to Paul the major success in spreading the doctrine that resulted
in the early church. And we should note that the four gospels were composed
and recorded after the letters ascribed to Paul.

Teachings of Other Religions

I am not sufficiently versed in the peculiarities of the various dominant religions to
offer detailed comment; I must leave that task to others. I do recognize, in the teachings
of Islam, that their political aspirations are extremely troubling when viewed from the
standpoint of mankind's history of belligerence and his quest for dominance. That there
is hope may be demonstrated by the survival of the peaceful teachings of the Buddha.
Regardless of the arrogance of the supposedly intellectual sophistication of Atheists,
their strident arguments are little more satisfying to the human spirit than today's
terrorists, or the call to order of ancestor worship, or worship of a godless and
impersonal Nature.

I have been told that the aborigines of the northeastern United States ascribed an
individual spirit to each object, animate or inanimate; clarification of extent was not
offered, whether it extended to grains of sand or bacteria or the fragments of a broken
rock. The question is thus raised: How ubiquitous is the spirit: Is there simply one
spirit that embraces all? Are spirits divisible? Is there a dividing line where lower
animals are without spirits? If peculiar to humans, at what point in evolution was the
practice commenced to assign a spirit to each individual? Is presence of a spirit
companion to ability to think in abstract terms? Questions! Always questions.

I do suggest that teachings of other religions, sects and cults, should they be truly
beneficial to individuals or the larger society, should be analyzed for their beneficial
elements with a view toward adoption -- in altered form if necessary -- of those beneficial
elements. In working toward our betterment few ideas should be peremptorily precluded.
11 To view footnote, click
here. At the same time I discourage policies and practices that
disrupt families and friendships. Each is responsible for his own belief system and should
be encouraged to practice what he has found satisfying to his soul.12 To view footnote, click here. Be
as sober as the situation dictates but sing in your heart because of the truths you have
discovered and the freedom they give you.

Afterthought: Whether the human body is a deliberate design by deity or the
product of natural forces is a matter of little consequence. We are here; we do what we
can. It seems obvious deity does not forcefully intervene to protect us from the
consequences of our choices. We are creatures of thought and choose to seek a path in
accord with deity's wishes or to reject what guidance is available to us. And mankind is
the summation of us all with our diverse interpretations of the larger order in which we
take part. Individually we contribute to the collective whole and will suffer the
consequences or experience the delights common to all and growing from our constructive
efforts or destructive machinations.

For thoughts on establishing Rational Theism as an institution that fosters a
rational interpretation of things sacred or religious, click here.
You can have an active role; I invite -- encourage -- you to do so although no one should
be coerced into examining the flaws in a rationally unsupportable religious faith.
Acceptance of the tenets of Rational Theism should be voluntary by those seeking truths
resulting from exercise of their thought processes. And I encourage you to visit the Blog
http://rationaltheism-kenwear.blogspot.org and send me comment to be included there.

You may jump to thoughts about the future by clicking here and
afterward return here.
Then you may jump to the footnotes by clicking here and afterward
scroll backward to the links.
I commend to your attention the comments above the next red line.

There has been a multiplicity of religions in mankind's history. They have
arisen and served, many have declined and been lost. I studied a series of lectures
on the five dominant religions of our times, and one thing stands out as constant
with them all: They have adapted. As the conditions of human life have evolved,
so have man's religions. Only in that way have they continued to be relevant. The
corollary is that a religion that cannot adapt must of necessity become lost.

An essential aspect of religion in modern life is mutual respect by each of us for the
various bodies of belief adopted by others. It matters not how far-fetched we may
feel their beliefs are -- how far removed from the real truth -- since it is their cherished
belief system adopted after the same rigorous examination of competing belief systems
that we personally undertook. The body of teachings presented by the founders of
the various faiths have been modified and adapted as civilization has progressed and
changed the circumstances under which their beliefs were practiced.4 To view footnote, click here.

Whether any one religion is superior to another, I will not argue. I will note, however,
that it is the Christian religion that has taught the supremacy of the individual and the
necessity for cooperation along with charity. Whether those ideas were instrumental in
the material development of the West, where that faith has been dominant, is a matter of
conjecture. Even so, I recognize certain weaknesses in the historical accuracy of the
Bible (where we likely ought to regard many presentations as allegorical rather than
recitations of fact) and have followed a path of applying the powers of mind to discern
rational interpretations.

8-24-06 Quote from an essay about Scientology, which I have
rejected for myself as poisonously self-centered despite the many good works fostered by
LRH and the good deeds of many adherents:11-7-2002 I am convinced of the truth as enunciated by
Jesus of Nazareth: "By their fruits you shall know them." If a philosophy
produces evil, then the philosophy is evil; if good, then . . . It is in the exercise
of your own reasoning process that you must accept from the offerings of civilization
that which is good, in your own personal assessment of good, and reject what is
not.

Memory and the Human Brain
The Spirit must evidently be a more inclusive entity than the brain alone. Some atheists
and agnostics make much of the connection between our nervous system (or the patchwork
of nerves within the human brain) and memory. Evidently, without the physical brain with
its nerves, there could be no memory as we understand its physical basis. Equally evident
is that, for an existence of the spirit after death to have any meaning whatsoever, some form
of cognitive function must exist; that it eludes our present understanding should not even be
surprising. I wonder, in fact, if our present notion of mechanism of memory -- comparing
it with digital memory as individual nerve cells flip or flop -- can be correct:
When I reckon that a photograph requires megabytes of digital capacity and compare this
with the megabyte requirement to retain the information content of a trained mind, it
becomes obvious that even trillions of bytes are not adequate. Memory is evidently more
complex than digital connections between nerve cells within the brain. For a further
discussion, click here.

I summarize here conclusions by two scientific researchers:
A neurologist theorizes that the brain is actually a gland because it produces
hormones, has hormone receptors and accomplishes nearly all of its functions using
hormones; since hormones circulate throughout the body, thought and memory may not
necessarily be localized in the head. And a biologist views the brain as a tuning
device; rather than generating thought and emotion, the brain may tune in the thoughts of
the mind, which exists somehow independent of the physical body. I offer no comment
on their conclusions although they are clearly consistent with the idea of Spirit as a
separate and separable entity.

(My politics intrudes.) Homosexuality: The Bible speaks very forcefully
against homosexual behavior. Whether determined genetically or by accident of
personal history, a homosexual person is yet an object of God's love. Whatever
attitudes or treatment a particular church or denomination encourages toward
homosexuals, that is of no concern to civil authorities, who should recognize all
equally and accord each citizen his due rights as a citizen. However, marriage is
a religious sacrament as the union of one man and one woman before God. The
church errs in demanding of civil authorities that its views be the guide for
legislative action, and the legislature errs in appropriating a religious sacrament
as a civil rite. Let the church define 'marriage.' And let the legislature establish
the terms under which a publicly announced commitment of two people to each
other -- and the consequential benefits -- can be recognized before the law.

I have also come to recognize, upon reflection, that the demand of Islam, that
church and state be one, can be met only in a sectarian society. The only form of
government that can truly allow each citizen to follow the dictates of his own religious faith
is secular. I do not take that as denying that religion exists or squeezing artifacts or
expressions of belief from public life, but as allowing each citizen to pursue his own faith
so long as he does not intrude upon others or denigrate the value to them of their
particular system of belief. In a free society the conflict secular versus sectarian can be
resolved only by the sectarians abandoning their demand that their faith be supreme so
there becomes a consequent union of church and state.

The Great Commission, I note, is based on gentle persuasion. It is an unfortunate
fact that early Islam taught that the unbeliever (infidel) must convert, pay a tax or face
the executioner, and many modern Muslims wish to enforce similar restrictions on faith.*
Failures of force to persuade is evident in the persecution of the Christians in Rome and
the failures of the various Crusades and the Inquisition. Once someone wholeheartedly
adopts a set of teachings, violence serves to harden his resistance to adoption of a
different set of teachings. More unfortunate is that each sect of Islam teaches
that adherents to other sects of Islam are infidels.

* Witness the 2007 example of a Muslim sentenced to death by a court in Afghanistan
because he wished to convert from Islam to another faith.

Whatever your primary motivation, it is evident that the pursuit of power or wealth or
authority or recognition have this in common: All are exercises in vanity. Is
your personal pursuit your religion? Do you mute your vanity by consideration of the
teachings of humanitarian concern common to Christianity, Islam, Wicca, Buddhism,
Theism, . . .?

A more extended description of the Spirit and Physical Realms
appears in a letter and its addendum. For that, click here.
(These are thoughts that preceded formulation of my notions of Rational Theism.)Various beliefs (a compendium): Versions of Reality click here Are the various religions necessarily at odds? For the House of Man click hereMy Religious Quest: Ken Wear's religious odyssey click here and the The Result (for me): My reality: the cosmos and my religious views:
of which the discussions in this essay are an extension. click
here.Should your curiosity impel you to know by what route I have reached
these understandings, My Religious Quest (odyssey, above) discusses my tortured
path.

I wish not to become embroiled in controversy involving beliefs that are without
concrete foundation, but, should you have scientifically viable information that
confirms or refutes my notions, I would gladly receive it. For an e-mail form,
click here.

In a way I feel cheated -- cheated of the simplicity of the Christian faith in which I was
nurtured. But, if cheated, I have done it to myself because of a restless spirit that could
not accept ideas that seemed to me to be incompatible or even mutually exclusive. The
desire to believe is powerful, and for years I accepted unquestioningly descriptions I
knew in reason were colored by the language and mind set of the time. I have felt led on
a path of discovery that has resulted in this web site and this presentation of Rational
Theism. I have felt constrained from active effort to push these ideas on others
although I would welcome communion with like-minded individuals.

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